Idolatry Cut Off

13 “In that (A)day (B)a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for (C)uncleanness.

“It shall be in that day,” says the Lord of hosts, “that I will (D)cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause (E)the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land. It shall come to pass that if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who begot him will say to him, ‘You shall (F)not live, because you have spoken lies in the name of the Lord.’ And his father and mother who begot him (G)shall thrust him through when he prophesies.

“And it shall be in that day that (H)every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; they will not wear (I)a robe of coarse hair to deceive. (J)But he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a farmer; for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.’ And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your [a]arms?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’

The Shepherd Savior

“Awake, O sword, against (K)My Shepherd,
Against the Man (L)who is My Companion,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
(M)“Strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep will be scattered;
Then I will turn My hand against (N)the little ones.
And it shall come to pass in all the land,”
Says the Lord,
That (O)two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die,
(P)But one-third shall be left in it:
I will bring the one-third (Q)through the fire,
Will (R)refine them as silver is refined,
And test them as gold is tested.
(S)They will call on My name,
And I will answer them.
(T)I will say, ‘This is My people’;
And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”

Footnotes

  1. Zechariah 13:6 Or hands

13 “At that time a Fountain will be opened to the people of Israel and Jerusalem, a Fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and defilement.”

And the Lord Almighty declares, “In that day I will get rid of every vestige of idol worship throughout the land, so that even the names of the idols will be forgotten. All false prophets and fortune-tellers will be wiped out, and if anyone begins false prophecy again, his own father and mother will slay him! ‘You must die,’ they will tell him, ‘for you are prophesying lies in the name of the Lord.’

“No one will be boasting then of his prophetic gift! No one will wear prophet’s clothes to try to fool the people then.

“‘No,’ he will say. ‘I am not a prophet; I am a farmer. The soil has been my livelihood from my earliest youth.’

“And if someone asks, ‘Then what are these scars on your chest and your back?’[a] he will say, ‘I got into a brawl at the home of a friend!’

“Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, the man who is my associate and equal,” says the Lord Almighty. “Strike down the Shepherd and the sheep will scatter, but I will come back and comfort and care for the lambs. Two-thirds of all the nation of Israel will be cut off and die,[b] but a third will be left in the land. I will bring the third that remain through the fire and make them pure, as gold and silver are refined and purified by fire. They will call upon my name and I will hear them; I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

Footnotes

  1. Zechariah 13:6 these scars on your chest and your back. Evidently self-inflicted cuts, as practiced by false prophets; see 1 Kings 18:28. I got into a brawl at the home of a friend, literally, “[These are] wounds I received in the house of my friends.” Some think this refers to Christ; others believe this refers to a false prophet who is lying about the reasons for his scars.
  2. Zechariah 13:8 Two-thirds of all the nation of Israel will be cut off and die. Something of this sort has already happened twice: 2 million Jews perished in the Roman wars, and 6 million under Hitler. Is a yet future disaster predicted here?